William F. Broening

File photo

Term: 1919 to 1923; 1927 to 1931 If Mayor William F. Broening is recalled for anything today, it is for the highway that is named for him that courses through Southeast Baltimore. A Republican, he was first elected to the City Council in 1897, the same year he graduated from the University of Maryland Law School. Oddly enough, the platform he ran on 115 years ago is back in the news in 2012. Broening was an advocate of placing utility, telephone and telegraph wires in underground conduits that would be municipally owned and maintained. Broening drafted and introduced the measure that created the Electric Commission who over saw the construction of the conduits. He served two mayoral terms from 1919 to 1923, and again from 1927 to 1931. It was during his second administration that voters were able to use in a trial test 50 voting machines that went into operation for the first time on Nov. 6, 1928. He died at 83 in 1953 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Pictured: Mayor William F. Broening celebrates Baltimore's bicentennial in 1929 by placing the 200th candle on a huge cake.

Term: 1919 to 1923; 1927 to 1931 If Mayor William F. Broening is recalled for anything today, it is for the highway that is named for him that courses through Southeast Baltimore. A Republican, he was first elected to the City Council in 1897, the same year he graduated from the University of Maryland Law School. Oddly enough, the platform he ran on 115 years ago is back in the news in 2012. Broening was an advocate of placing utility, telephone and telegraph wires in underground conduits that would be municipally owned and maintained. Broening drafted and introduced the measure that created the Electric Commission who over saw the construction of the conduits. He served two mayoral terms from 1919 to 1923, and again from 1927 to 1931. It was during his second administration that voters were able to use in a trial test 50 voting machines that went into operation for the first time on Nov. 6, 1928. He died at 83 in 1953 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Pictured: Mayor William F. Broening celebrates Baltimore's bicentennial in 1929 by placing the 200th candle on a huge cake.